The Accidental Air Bender
by almighty-ginger
Summary: What actually happened to Korra after Aman took her bending? My take on how Korra really got her bending back. Rated T for occasional profanity.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: The Air Bender's Proposal **

**Well it's been a while since I posted anything to FanFiction, so I decided it might be best to start fresh with a new account, new stories, new everything. So welcome all to my new story, the first to be posted to this new account. I'm going to try to put more effort into this account than the last one, so I hope you all enjoy! **

**This is a Korra/Last Airbender crossover. It happens after Korra's bending is taken away, but before Aang gives it back. In Aang's world, the story takes place soon after the end of the series. **

**Oh, and I don't own Legend of Korra or the Last Airbender. Yeah. **

**.~.~.~. **

Korra was angry.

If she was still able to fire bend, she would have sent a blasting wave of heat forward to make a damp, puddle ridden path out the condensing snow. If she could earth bend, she would drop her foot to the ground with enough force to send snow covered ground flying into the air. If she could water bend, snow would be converted to deadly icicles and sent flying out at Korra's command.

But she could do none of these things. She could not fire bend, she could not earth bend, she could not water bend. Korra was still able to air bend, but what raging destruction could one cause with puffs of air?

Air bending sucks, thought Korra as she marched away in a frustratingly mundane fashion.

Korra's friends stared at her as she made her exit, partly in shock, partly in understanding. They all knew Korra well enough to know the pride she took in her bending skill, and how much it hurt when that pride was ripped into shreds at a single touch from Aman. Korra could feel Chief Beyfong's eyes particularly (they had always had a distinguishing prick to them). Beyfong, Korra knew, was able to understand Korra's misery more than anyone, having lost her own bending to Aman's detestable power, but even Beyfong couldn't possibly comprehend the weight upon Korra's shoulders.

Korra had failed as an Avatar. She had let Aman best her, and the whole world knew it. She wanted to beat the crap out of someone. She wanted to kill something. But air bending couldn't burn people, crush people, or drown people. The best air bending could do was push someone over.

Air bending sucks. Korra repeated her mantra out loud, making a chant out of the detestable phrase. She grumbled at each miserable verse, scowled at each miserable line, lashed out with her fists at each horrible, miserable, godforsaken syllable.

"AIR bending sucks. Air BENDING sucks. Air bending SUCKS! It SUCKS! It SUCKS!"

With that last word, Korra's fist collided with the trunk of a tall tree which accordingly responded by showering her with a load of snow.

Korra let out a shout and smacked the snow from her hair, feeling a painful regret for the days when she could toss the snow off easily with her water bending. Those days have passed, whispered a voice in Korra's head, you need to learn to move on.

"Go screw yourself," Korra told the voice out loud. "Like hell if I'm gonna be a half assed Avatar the rest of my life."

"That's what I thought you'd say."

The sudden voice came from behind her. Korra turned quickly on her heel to face the intruder (which is not an easy task to perform in the snow, though Korra pulled it off without the slightest of stumbles).

The first thing she saw was orange, an outfit of ghastly orange and yellow. It was an outfit Korra was familiar with, as she had lived around similar clothing as of late. The next thing to catch her eye was a broad blue arrow stretching up over the top of his head to point down between his eyes. Korra's scattered thoughts started to come together coherently: she was looking at an air bender.

Tenzin? No, the jaw line wasn't quite right and the –

Wait. No…it couldn't be…

"Aang? Avatar Aang?"

"Just Aang is fine." The strange man in the Air Temple get-up smiled, trying to be friendly.

"What – what are you doing here?"

"I'm here to help you out."

"But. You. You're dead." Korra came the closest she had ever come to being speechless. Her mind was blank, but her mouth kept spouting out words, a habit that had been deeply ingrained in her since she'd first started to speak. "You can't be here. This. What? How?" Finally, her mouth was at a loss, and Korra remained standing there, hands still held out in defensive position. Her eyes, a severe blue like the ocean, were focused on the previous Avatar, her own former life.

Tenzin had once told her that looking at one of her past lives would be like looking in a mirror: they were the same, through and through, two different phases of the same cycle. Clearly, Tenzin had never encountered any former lives of his own. Korra looked at the strong, successful Avatar in front of her and mentally kicked herself for being such an awful failure.

"I know it's a little shocking for you, Korra. It's no secret that you're not in touch with your spiritual side. But you are the Avatar, and the Spirit World will always be open to you."

The man in orange – Aang, Korra reminded herself, Avatar Aang himself – stretched out his hand, beckoning Korra to join him. Korra, hesitantly as it wasn't often she consorted with the dead, took the former Avatar's hand. Aang took a step forward, and Korra followed. The instant Korra's foot hit the ground, the snowy landscape dissolved around her. Mounds of snow became curiously shaped boulders. The tall pines became low-hanging trees with billowing branches. The very snow Korra stood upon seemed to melt away to reveal dampened soil, nearly to the point of muddiness.

It didn't take Korra long to realize that her last step had taken her more than mere inches; it had transported her across dimensions. She was in the Spirit World.

The Spirit World took on the form of a swamp, but a swamp unlike any Korra had ever before seen. She was surrounded by trees – willow trees perhaps? – but the leaves seemed to be tufts of colored fur more than they were photosynthesizing leaves. Each tree was decorated Dr. Seuss style, wooden branches accented by layers of red and pink fuzz. The rest of the swamp looked normal: tall grass, scattered boulders, the ground occasionally lost underneath deep trenches of rainwater and mud. If there was an odd hue to the picturesque scene, it was likely due to the sunlight sifting through the pink canvas of trees, dripping tinted light wherever it pushed its way through.

Korra held out her hand, marveling at the way the pink light managed to alter the hue of her skin. Her entire outfit was transformed, stained a garish lavender. Korra shifted her weight from her right heel to her left; the girl was horrified to see herself in any clothing varying from her standard blue. She looked up at Aang, and was considerably satisfied to see that his orange get up had been dyed hot pink to match the blush growing beneath his cheekbones.

"Pink suits you, arrow boy," Korra smirked.

Aang pretended that he hadn't heard and hadn't noticed the transformative power the environment held over his clothing. He led Korra forward, out of the swamp and its curiously colored atmosphere and into a large field that extended as far as the horizon, perhaps further.

"Korra," Aang began slowly, as if unsure how his words should best fit together, "I know it's hard for you to have your bending taken away." Korra glared hard at the former Avatar, mentally cursing him for daring to bring it up. "But what if I told you it didn't have to be that way? What if I told you that there may be a way to bring your bending back?"

"How?"

"I was the one who first introduced the ability to take away bending to the world. When Aman, used that ability on you, I thought that I would be able to think of a way to give someone's bending back—"

"And you figured it out, and you're about to do it right now!" Korra pounded the air with her fist in ecstasy, relishing her presumptuous conclusion.

"Not quite," Aang said with a half smile that seemed nearly apologetic, "No matter what I considered, the same dilemma stood in my way: I'm only a spirit. I have no real power over the modern world, and therefore wouldn't be able to fix what has been wronged. But if you were to go back and see me when I was still alive…well, I may just have the power to do something then."

"So your option is time travel. Look I know you were a great Avatar and all, but that's completely ridiculous."

"Not for the Avatar. See, the Spirit World is like a hallway. You can use it to get to anywhere you want. The problem is that only one's soul may travel to the Spirit World; the physical body must stay behind. Therefore, unless one can acquire a body in the new world they travel to via the Spirit World, they will be unable to have a physical presence in this new world."

"So to 'time travel,' I have to find a body back in your old world?"

"Yes, Korra. Of course, one can't simply take any body. If the body is dead or already has a soul, it will reject you. The only way is to occupy the body of an unborn child who does not yet have a soul."

Aang gave Korra a long look, waiting for her to understand. She did not.

"Korra. You have to be born again."

Aang could tell that she was struggling with the idea, weighing it in her mind. Korra had a certain look when she was considering something so beyond ordinary, the look was near pensive – as near to pensive as Korra could get. Her forehead scrunched up, her eyes dropped to the floor, her arms embraced herself above her waist. If laser vision had been included in her Avatar prowess, the dead leaf her eyes had unconsciously focused upon would have burst into flame many moments ago.

"I have to be born again. I have to grow up, hit puberty, _live_ again?" The girl's eyes didn't return to meet Aang's. Rather, they stayed focused on the dead leaf, forehead still besieged by wrinkle upon wrinkle.

Aang didn't respond. He too watched the dead leaf, though the muscles of his forehead didn't tighten as Korra's.

"Will I know? Will I remember—?"

"No. Remember, your soul will be placed inside a fetus, which doesn't yet have the mental capacity for such as elaborate memories as yours. You will have to discover your destiny as you grow. You will have to find me and learn how to recover your bending."

"But I won't be able to remember! I won't be able to find you if I don't even know that I have to!"

"Your destiny is strong, Korra. It will find you whether or not you acknowledge it."

"You make no sense."

Aang sighed, abandoning his sage-like presence for a moment to express his exasperation. It was difficult reasoning with the strong-willed Korra.

"So what if you're wrong, Aang? What if I can't find you? What if I fail? It wouldn't be the first time."

The arrow-bearing Avatar recollected himself with a slight inhalation and looked the other person square in the eye. "Korra, if you fail, your soul will be stuck in the world of the past. You will never be able to return your true body. In short, the Korra of this world will die, and since your soul will be lost in time, unable to reincarnate, the Avatar cycle will be broken forever."

"That's…encouraging." Korra tried a slip of pessimistic humor to lighten the mood. Unfortunately, the mood wasn't lightened in the least; if anything, the atmosphere grew ever more dismal.

"I couldn't let you go without knowing the consequences."

"So I could succeed and get my bending back, be forever known as the time traveling Avatar. Or I could utterly fail and be known as the Avatar who screwed up big time, lost her bending, died, _and_ broke the Avatar cycle." Being an air bender the rest of her life was sounding more and more appealing to Korra.

"It is your decision, Korra," the orange clad Avatar stated solemnly, "View it as you wish."

Korra already knew her choice. It was the obvious one to make. "Do it. Send me back. This half-Avatar shit is not my thing."

"Of course." Aang had known her decision the instant he had considered this solution. And if she were to fail? It would be all his fault. All his fault for pushing her into this horrid situation. The spirit looked upon the girl – for a girl she was, not yet old enough to be considered an "adult" – and mentally groaned in despair. If she didn't make it out of this, only he was to blame.

"Take my hand, Korra," Aang ordered, refusing to betray his pessimism with any unnecessary fluctuations in his voice, "I'll take your soul to its new body."

Korra breathed deeply, knowing it would be the last breath she would take before being sent to the world of the past. She savored each oxygen molecule, appreciating the cool push the breeze fixed against the back of her throat.

Korra placed her hand inside Aang's. His skin was warmer than hers and sent bits of heat shooting past her skin.

She closed her eyes. The world was so much more peaceful in the dark.

She breathed out.

And that was when the world disappeared.

**.~.~.~.**

**Thanks for reading, and thank you even more for REVIEWING which I know you're about to do right now :) **

**Sorry there wasn't much action, but I felt like it'd be best to get the explanations out of the way, so we can get to the meat in later chapters. I also realize that this chapter was a little short. Yes, yes, I do have a tendency to write short chapters, but I'll try to make them longer if that's the way people prefer them. **

**Please tell me what you think, especially if I missed that one blatant detail, so obvious it was sitting cross-legged on my keyboard as I typed. I am also open to suggestions, considering I have no planning abilities whatsoever. Thanks!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2:**

**Thanks to my two reviewers and everyone else who read my last chapter! I'll definitely keep updating this story, so stay tuned! I'm not at all sure where this story is going though. Hell, I don't even know where this chapter is going. Bah! **

**To anyone who missed it in the last chapter: in Aang's world, the Firelord was defeated less than six months previous. **

**Well, here goes… **

**.~.~.~. **

Aang paced in front of the entryway nervously. Around his neck hung a long orange cape that drifted down to the ground, and each time Aang turned around to continue pacing, the orange velvet swung about his feet and whispered to his toes.

Fourteen, fifteen, sixteen… Aang counted his steps until he had to turn around again to avoid collision with the wall towering high above him. Seventeen, eighteen. The Avatar pivoted on his heel as the fabric of his clothing rustled in objection to the abrupt motion. He felt the material brush over the top of his feet to the tips of his toes where it tickled the skin gently before settling back behind the ankle. Aang took another step, then another. One, two…

Doors opened. Aang looked up expectantly. "Well?"

Katara who had opened the doors looked at her friend solemnly, shaking her head in grief. "They're here. And they're not open to any sort of peace talk."

"But we can't _fight_ them!"

"Aang," murmured a low voice, "we may not have a choice." It was Sokka who spoke, walking up from behind his sister. His feet dragged, making each stride long and slow, like he was wading through a river of blood and tears. In a dismally metaphorical way, he was. "Look, I know you mean well, but when Katara and I went out there to try to scope out their intentions, things weren't sounding too good. They want to burn the city to the ground, then execute all the fire benders they can lay their hands on. They're far past reasoning."

"I have to try. We didn't defeat the Firelord just so that the world could fall back into another war!"

With those words, Aang left in the direction Katara and Sokka had come. He marched down the long hallway and out onto the balcony to see what awaited him below.

The sight was a horror to see. A mob of people crammed into the town square. They overflowed into the smaller alleys and even past the city limits. It was a larger amount of people than Aang had ever seen gathered together for one purpose. The sight of so many people, so many green Earth Kingdom hats and blue Water Tribe ponytails, would have been almost beautiful, if not for the shining glints of steel one could see scattered among the crowd. Swords, spears, arrows, knives. They came with any and every weapon possible. Aang even saw a few less conventional weapons in the crowd: a wooden meat cleaver, a couple hammers, and Aang even saw one person who came with nothing but a very heavy rock.

But Aang was used to weapons. He'd been hit with quite a few heavy rocks in his time. No, it was not the weapons that frightened the Avatar but the overwhelming atmosphere of hatred that filled the square. On each and every person resided an expression of anger, of abhorrence for the fire benders who had ravaged their villages and murdered their families. Their eyebrows were clenched, and the tendons in their necks ticked out as they shouted for justice, each discordant syllable ringing out in a unified wail for liberty.

"Burn down the fire benders!"

"Fight fire with fire!"

"Give them what they deserve!"

Everyone had their own piece to say, but the meaning was always the same. They wanted the fire benders, even the entire Fire Nation if they could. And if they couldn't…well there'd be hell to pay if they couldn't.

Aang came into full view, expecting the mob to quiet down and listen to what he had to say, as people often did when the Avatar came into view. But this time, nothing happened. The crowd continued to scream and shout as if their very hero wasn't standing in front of them gesturing for silence. Most of them didn't even notice the boy as he waved his arms urgently to the mob.

A hand brushed Aang's shoulder. He didn't need to look to know it was Katara, in a somber attempt to comfort him. The water bender walked up to stand next to him. She looked down on the commotion and chaos.

"It's not your fault, you know," she whispered over the continuous noise, "There's nothing you could have done to stop it from coming to this point."

"I could have listened. I could have proved to them that the Fire Nation isn't out to get them anymore."

"They're just adjusting. There's been so much change in so little time…the people still aren't used to calling the Fire Nation their friends. It'll get better. You'll see."

"Maybe one day. But if they act before that point comes, I don't know what I'll do. I can't fight them; they're good people, they've just lost their way. But if I just let them do what they want, they'll massacre all the fire benders." Aang sighed and looked down on his orange clad body. He was so tired of war.

Katara didn't answer. She unconsciously fingered a lock of her hair, letting the individual strands twist around each other before coming back into place as she realigned her fingers. It was a nervous habit from childhood, one that she had thought long gone.

The two were interrupted from their thoughts when movement, other than the previous stomping of feet and waving of hands, broke out amongst the crowd. It was a person, a girl, older than Aang but still young, who was causing the movement. She pushed her way through the crowd (perhaps "pushed" isn't the right word, for the girl, though young, was able to forge a path for herself without lifting a finger; it was her confident demeanor that caused people to take a step back rather than physical force). It was only when the girl reached the front that she stretched to her full height and faced the crowd.

"Brothers," she started in militaristic fashion, "Sisters. You all know why we're here today. Each and every one of you have been affected in some way by the Fire Nation. They abused us. Threatened us. Murdered our families and friends." The girl paused for effect.

Aang noticed her odd fashion choice, like she couldn't decide between Earth Kingdom and Water Tribe styles. The band around her hair was blue, elegant, Water Tribe through and through, but the rest of her outfit was far more complicated. Her bottom half was fitted with long Earth Kingdom slacks that fell comfortably about her legs, but they were dyed a pale blue color, as all Water Tribe clothing should be. The girl's top was well fitted unlike the boxy style of the Earth Kingdom, but it was colored with sandy green and a deep shade of malachite. It was utterly confusing.

The girl looked up at the balcony and noticed the Avatar analyzing her. She glared back at him, daring the boy to make a sound. When he didn't, she continued.

"I too suffered at the hands of the Fire Nation during the long war. They killed my entire family and left me to suffer alone." The crowd was silent, absorbing the words of the strange girl, their leader. "So I know what you feel when you see these _villains_ being treated as if they were innocent human beings, as if they had taken no part in that atrocious war." At the word 'villains,' the girl spat onto the road as if the very word had dirtied her mouth, and she then proceeded to glare about the town, as if expecting Fire Nation soldiers to come popping out of a building to end her heretical speech.

"And so," she continued ferociously, "we must give these criminals the justice they deserve. We must show them we remember the blood that they've spilled in the past hundred years. We must rid the world of those who dominate, those who oppress, those who tyrannize!"

After speaking her part, the girl glared up at the boy she knew to be the Avatar. She addressed him coldly. "Avatar Aang. I would have thought at least you would be able to see the treachery of these people. They can't be trusted. I'll ask you once, Avatar: leave these criminals to fend for themselves. They don't deserve your support."

Aang drew himself up, attempt to present an authoritative figure. He looked the girl square in her ocean blue eyes and answered her. "Come inside, and we can discuss this."

After a moment of tension, the girl gave a slight inclination of her head, signaling that she agreed.

As she walked up, Aang asked one final question of the girl.

"What's your name?"

She paused in her stride, one foot lingering on its toes as if preparing to take a step. Her chin rose so that the ocean blue eyes met Aang's once again.

"Call me Korra."

.~.~.~.

She had joined the army in the last few years of the war. She was fourteen at the time, old enough to hold her own but young enough to stand out in an uncomfortable way.

No, Korra did not miss her time in the army.

The uniforms were uncomfortable. The food tasted like shit. The people who didn't laugh outright in her face at her young age muttered in the background, like they thought deafness was a side effect of adolescence.

But she had endured it. In fact the trials made her stronger. Well, they made her angrier, and when Korra was angry she obliterated everything in her path. You could say it was "motivation." All the distresses accompanying her enrollment in the army were worth it to bash in a few fire bender heads. And there were always plenty of heads to bash.

.~.~.~.

"Well? If you have something to say spit it out," Korra grumbled to the kid standing before her. He was only half her size – _half her size!_ – but she knew not to make assumptions based on such trivial fact.

"You can't kill off the fire benders. The war is over. Peace has been made."

"Peace," Korra scoffed, "You think this is peace? Thousands are left without homes, without families, and you think we have peace?"

The Avatar's eyes cast downward. He knew all too well the effect that the war had had on the world. "I understand that the Fire Nation did some horrible things in the past. But that was long ago. Call off the mob, Korra, please."

The girl's eyes narrowed, and her lip curled up in what could have nearly been a smirk. "Like hell I will."

.~.~.~.

Her mother had died precisely at midnight, her father a half hour before.

Korra, nearly fourteen, had been sleeping when the fire benders came to raid her village. She woke to the smell of smoke, only then noticing the shouts of rage, the screams of fear. She heard the metal on metal of a close-ranged fight and bolted from her bed out to a brutal scene; her formerly prosperous village was falling into mayhem.

Her older brother was already down, eyes cold from the absence of life. She couldn't scream. She couldn't cry. She couldn't move. She could only watch.

There was a lot of red, though whether it was from the striking, scarlet uniforms of the Fire Nation or from excessive amounts of blood, Korra could not remember. There was metal, so much metal; sword clashed with spear, and arrow pierced through armor. She saw her fellow Earth Kingdom villagers burn in flames. They could do little to counter it, as they had no benders of their own. All the benders had left for the war.

She saw her father fall. At first glance, Korra thought he was clenching a spear between his shoulder blades. No, that wasn't right. The tip of the spear was protruding from his chest. Which meant…

"Dad!" said Korra, emerging at last from her state of paralysis, ran forward and caught her dad as he fell. Her arms weren't quite large enough to fully grasp her father's body, so her touch caused the man to tilt and land on his side. He was gone already, face glued into a permanent state of shock and pain.

.~.~.~.

Korra left the room quickly, back out to her rampaging people. A water bending girl – Katara, Aang called her – ran after her, but she didn't listen to the soothing words the girl pleaded.

She emerged in front of the crowd who were waiting with eager expectancy.

"We fight!"

A triumphant wail erupted from the crowd. All at once, a large group of people charged forward, eager to achieve the justice they sought.

.~.~.~.

The young Korra stood. She wasn't sure what exactly was happening, wasn't sure how her body was moving all on its own accord, but she turned to face the battle closest to her.

A dark skinned hand – her own, Korra realized – shot out and aimed itself at the nearest Fire Nation soldier. Korra felt power course through her, from her core to the tips of her fingers. The man was blasted back into another of his kind.

She turned rapidly, facing soldier after soldier, and each of them toppled down, occasionally landing gruesomely on fallen weapons, others landing in just the right fashion that she could see the unnatural angle of their heads upon their necks.

Korra was disgusted. But she could not stop. Her body continued to turn; the corpses continued to fall.

.~.~.~.

It was chaos.

The mob ran through the buildings and alleyways, looking for anyone who could be considered Fire Nation.

The problem? How does one define Fire Nation?

And so, the first few times they encountered some lowly citizen, they were confused as to their intentions. Are they an enemy? Do they count? Such people at first were trampled over by the mob who was eager to find a different choice of opponent. Over time though, boundaries were blurred and adrenaline escalated, and who's to say that some earth benders weren't among the dead count. Who's to say that all the victims had been from one side of the war?

.~.~.~.

Korra was still standing. She was the only one doing so.

Bodies lay around her. There were so many, too many, to count.

So many.

.~.~.~.

The crowd had made its way through the lower town. They swung their spears, heaved their mallets. No person was free from the touch of blood, though not necessarily their own. The weapons were nearly unidentifiable under the thick layers of crimson.

It was all done under one unifying chant.

"Fight fire with fire!" "Fire with fire!"

.~.~.~.

Her fingers trembled. Korra knelt slowly in front of a small figure sprawled over a scarlet puddle. It was a figure she recognized. Her mother.

_Did I do this?_ Korra shocked herself when she didn't know how to answer.

.~.~.~.

Korra led the charge. She struck down any clearing of flesh she saw. If it wore red, she hit it.

She swung her knife up. The momentum stopped abruptly as the blade met a man's skull.

.~.~.~.

"Korra." The voice was soft over pallid lips. "I always knew you were special."

"Mom."

.~.~.~.

She pulled the knife from the body with ease, plunging it into flesh once again just to be sure.

.~.~.~.

"You've been special ever since the day I first picked you up off the streets. You know what I heard that day?"

.~.~.~.

"Fire with fire!" "Fire with fire!"

.~.~.~.

"There was a voice in my ear, right as I grabbed your hand, Korra. And it said to me, 'Call her Korra.'"

.~.~.~.

She stepped easily over the body, reaching out to her next victim.

.~.~.~.

"And right then and there, I knew you were special." The woman smiled, oh so gently.

.~.~.~.

Blood erupted. Korra pulled her knife back out and kicked the body in the chest. She ran quickly past.

.~.~.~.

"I don't want to be special! It was an accident!"

.~.~.~.

Her opponents were nothing. They perished just as soon as they saw her.

.~.~.~.

"Don't be sorry for anything, Korra. You have a destiny too great to be weighed down by regrets."

.~.~.~.

In the heat of the moment, Korra forgot what she was doing. She forgot who she was. Her hands moved forward on their own, positioning themselves in front of a woman clad in red.

.~.~.~.

"Promise me, Korra. Promise me you'll keep moving forward." The words were interrupted by heaving, as if the woman's very breath was bleeding out.

.~.~.~.

The woman looked at Korra in shock.

Then she was blasted back, neck snapped in two.

.~.~.~.

"I – I –"

Before Korra could say the words between her gasping tears, her mother fell into a permanent silence. And the world was so quiet, just as it must have been at its very creation before any life had started.

_I promise._ The silence was too ominous to break.

.~.~.~.

Korra and her people left after they had finished with the lower city. No one made a sound. No one dared.


End file.
